Dialectical Journal The dialectical journal is also known as a double-entry journal. Students create two columns on their pages and in one column, they write down quotes or summaries, and in the other they write down responses to those quotes or summaries. It is a sort of conversation that readers have with the text. The two columns serve as a dialogue between one another.
Instructions: 1. Fold or draw a line down the middle of your paper, making two columns. 2. The left column should be used to write down quotes from the text, or summaries of paragraphs or chapters. This is the notes column. ALWAYS provide the page number from which you find the quote. 3. The right column should be used for commenting on the notes in the left column. This is the column in which you interpret the quote, ask questions about it or supply your own personal responses. The right column can utilize any of the following:
Your interpretation of the quote
What you think the passage or quote says about the speaker or the circumstance
What you think the passage reminds you of
What the words connote. In other words, what feelings are associated with the words or phrases the author uses?
Questions you have about the passage
Any connections to other works or parts of the same work
What you think is important about the passage.
EXAMPLE: “For My Indian Daughter” by Lewis Sawaquat
Quote or Passage from the Text
Response to the Quote or Passage
“My wife suggested we leave the beach, and I agreed” (118).
“I wore my orange sweater anyway and deliberately avoided the alleys” (119).
I’m wondering why the narrator would let a stupid, racist spoil his family’s fun at the beach. It seems like the ignorant man succeeds in making the family feel uncomfortable. I’m not sure I agree with leaving.
The narrator, in his younger days, seems to have been tougher and not afraid of racist bullies. In fact, maybe he seeks a fight.
The dialectical journal is also known as a double-entry journal. Students create two columns on their pages and in one column, they write down quotes or summaries, and in the other they write down responses to those quotes or summaries. It is a sort of conversation that readers have with the text. The two columns serve as a dialogue between one another.
Instructions:
1. Fold or draw a line down the middle of your paper, making two columns.
2. The left column should be used to write down quotes from the text, or summaries of paragraphs or chapters. This is the notes column. ALWAYS provide the page number from which you find the quote.
3. The right column should be used for commenting on the notes in the left column. This is the column in which you interpret the quote, ask questions about it or supply your own personal responses. The right column can utilize any of the following:
- Your interpretation of the quote
- What you think the passage or quote says about the speaker or the circumstance
- What you think the passage reminds you of
- What the words connote. In other words, what feelings are associated with the words or phrases the author uses?
- Questions you have about the passage
- Any connections to other works or parts of the same work
- What you think is important about the passage.
EXAMPLE: “For My Indian Daughter” by Lewis Sawaquat“I wore my orange sweater anyway and deliberately avoided the alleys” (119).
The narrator, in his younger days, seems to have been tougher and not afraid of racist bullies. In fact, maybe he seeks a fight.